Another smoke free day! Something to celebrate! Lots of clouds in the sky, though and the wind was whipping. Holy Moly. Breakfast today was a repeat of yesterday. We had the yogurt parfait again even though as chilly as it was, oatmeal sounded good too. We were checked out and on the road by about 8:30, driving the Going to the Sun Road again. We didn't take too many pictures because it was so cloudy, but some of the views were pretty neat because of the clouds. And the tops of the mountains were dusted with snow. So that rain we got last night fell in the form of snow in the upper elevations. Brrrrrr!
The drive into Two Medicine was equally as beautiful. Here's a view of the lake before we turned back into the park.
Bob had his heart set on hiking the Hidden Falls trail so we pulled in at Logan's Pass where it starts. Hahahaha. I don't know how hard was blowing, but it was wicked. And the temp? LOLOL. Let me just let the photo tell the story.
And that's the temp not factoring in the wind chill. We decided not to risk pneumonia and got back in the car. Hopefully, we'll have the chance to do that hike another day. Just like yesterday, the sky seemed clearer and bluer in the east. Since the hike didn't pan out we decided to drive to Many Glacier hoping that it would be pretty enough to do a short hike there or get some nice shots at the very least. Yeah well, not so much. As we headed east leaving the park the sky did look better. But then we had to head west again going back into the park to Many Glacier. It's like there was this black cloud over the park. The Many Glacier Lodge is modeled after a Swiss Alps lodge. It was beautiful. And the location? Wow. But the cold temperature and the winds and the clouds made it feel like a winter day at home. We went in the lodge and had lunch. When all else fails, we eat and drink.
After lunch we drove 89 to 49 to Two Medicine. There were hikes in that area of the park we want to do too. Plus we were still hoping the clouds would go away and show us some blue sky. These roads go through the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. There are cows all over the place. They graze wherever they want to. Right next to the road. And they look at you when you drive past, as if to say, "Whatchoo lookin' at homie?"
The views on 89 were really pretty. The clouds made for some dramatic images. And when we hit 49 things got even more interesting. Glacier is huge and mountains are ginormous and there are so many of them! It's not like there are only a few. It really is mind blowing. And we haven't seen any of them under great circumstances.
This is the view we'd been seeing on the webcam for the last month or so. Looked pretty much the same.
Everything is so dry here. All the lakes are dry, the creeks are barely even still creeks. It's just sad. It's hard to believe it's so dry when they routinely get 80' of snow a year. That's a lot of snow. Anyway, there isn't much at Two Medicine - A ranger station, campground and small store. That's about it. We did do a small 1/2 mile roundtrip walk to Running Eagle Falls. We didn't expect much so weren't too disappointed. This one is glacier fed so at least there was something coming out of it. But all in all it was really dry.
I took these pictures to show the "bridge" you should need to walk across to access the falls. All this rock bed should be covered with water. Instead, we're walking across dry rocks. Crazy, isn't it?
It's around 4:00 so we headed to our hotel. The Dancing Bears Inn. It's a step up from the Lake MacDonald Motor Inn. When Bob made our reservations all the lodges were full so he took what he could get. But now all the lodges have vacancies. Ugh. And we couldn't cancel without losing part if not all of the reservation. It's fine. We're just scoping out where we'll stay next time we come.
The East Glacier Lodge. Wow. Wow. Wow. Built in 1912 and it is still amazing. Would love to stay here. The support tree trunks used all throughout the lodge weigh 15 tons each. Yeah. Really. Wow. Amazing. I know. I'm repeating myself. Can't help it. So much history in this place. Google it. You'll be amazed too.
We ate dinner in the lounge. I got a Glacier Mojito, made with some kind of huckleberry liqueur. Uh huh. It was good too! Didn't send this one back!
Bob got a local oatmeal stout he loved. And we both got a chicken salad for dinner. Nice end to the day.
Quote of the day: Bob was eating and said he needed a FitBit for his arm. Maybe you had to have been there. It was funny at the time. LOL
It's only 10:00 and I'm done with journaling!! Early night tonight!
No comments:
Post a Comment